The Sun Down Motel - Simone St. James

The Sun Down Motel, by Simone St. James, came to me unsolicited from Danielle Keir at Penguin Random House.  And it's even in a ready-to-go hardcover!  When that happens, which is not very often, I feel obligated to read the book.  As the French say, it's a comme si, comme sa situation.  But, fortunately, I liked it.  Voila (get it?...more French?) the synopsis:

Upstate New York, 1982.  Viv Delaney wants to move to New York City, and to help pay for it she takes a job as the night clerk at the Sun Down Motel in Fell, New York.  But something isn't right at the motel, something haunting and scary.

Upstate New York, 2017.  Carly Kirk has never been able to let go of the story of her Aunt Viv, who mysteriously disappeared from the Sun Down before she was born.  Carly decides to move to Fell and visit the motel, where she quickly learns that nothing has changed since 1982.  And she finds herself ensnared in the same mysteries that claimed her aunt.

I believe I just went through this with you all in my last review.  Once again we are going back and forth between 2 different timeframes.  In this case, it's only 35 years vs. almost 80 in BIG LIES IN A SMALL TOWN. And I have to say that I didn't connect with the 2 protagonists quite the same way in Sun Down as I did in BLIAST.  But it's still a good read.  This is Simone's 7th book and my 1st.  Considering I've been a blogger for 9+ years, and a lifelong (which, reversed, is an accurate description of my age!) reader, I'm amazed at how many writers I don't know.  Well that's not the case with Simone St. James any more.  And I will be waiting for her next one.

Diane Chamberlain Does It Again!

Diane Chamberlain has written 27 books, and I just finished my 3rd.  It's hopeless!  But at least I can read any new one that comes out.  And that's just what I did.  The 1st 2, The Dream Daughter and The Stolen Marriage, were terrific.  So how's her latest, BIG LIES IN A SMALL TOWN, you ask?  In a word...excellent!  Let me blurb it for you:

North Carolina, 2018
Morgan Christopher's life has been derailed.  When she takes the fall for a crime she did not commit, her dream of a career in art is put on hold - until a mysterious visitor makes her an offer that will get her released from prison immediately.  Her assignment:  Restore an old post office mural in a sleepy Southern town.  Morgan knows nothing about art restoration but, desperate to be free, she accepts.  What she finds under the layers of grime is a painting that tells the story of madness, violence, and a conspiracy of small-town secrets.

North Carolina, 1940
Anna Dale, an artist from New Jersey, wins a national contest to paint a mural for the post office in Edenton, North Carolina.  Alone in the world and in great need of work, she accepts.  but what she doesn't expect is to find herself immersed in a town where prejudices run deep, where people are hiding secrets behind closed doors, and where the price of being different might just end in murder.
What happened to Anna Dale?  Are the clues hidden in the decrepit mural?  Can Morgan overcome her own demons to discover what exists beneath the layers of lies?

I happen to be a fan of stories that skip back and forth in time.  This one obviously does that.  But it only works if you care about the protagonist(s) in each period of time.  And I certainly did.  I'm not an artist (ask me someday about how I let my partner down in a spirited game of Pictionary!), but I appreciated learning about the process.  And who can forget the most famous fictional art restorer of all time?  That would be Gabriel Allon, Daniel Silva's longstanding series about a renowned art restorer who also happens to lead Israel's intelligence services.  But unlike Silva, Diane actually tells us about the process.  And it's important to the storyline.

If I didn't have hundreds (at least several dozens) of books in my TBR pile, not counting the ones I will be buying along the way, I would binge-read Diane's books.  Alas, that is not practical.  I will just have to content myself with every new book that she writes.  It could be worse.

Cara Black Writes a NON-Aimee Leduc Novel!

Everybody knows Cara Black and her Aimee Leduc protagonist.  I mean, after all, she has written 19 books in that series!  She has enabled all of us to learn a lot about Paris while giving us state of the art mysteries. Now, she's written a standalone novel, THREE HOURS IN PARIS, that takes place in 1940.  It's a fact that in June of that year Hitler spent a total of 3 hours in Paris.  Cara has taken that fact and reimagined history with (per the book cover) "One American Riflewoman. One Impossible Spy Mission. One Shot at Changing the Course of History."  How clever is this?  It's good to see that Cara hasn't gotten so buried in her Leduc series that she can't write anything else.  Well I'm here to tell you that she certainly can!  I'm not going to post the back cover blurb because the front cover tells us what we need to know.

Is the book any good?  How about a Goodreads rating of 4.30/5 with 76 people weighing in.  Why are there so few?  Good question.  It's because the book is not even out yet.  It doesn't hit bookstores  (or ebooks or audiobooks) for another 3 weeks.  By this time in April, you are probably going to see ratings in the thousands.  And I would be very surprised if that 4.30 did any dipping.  In fact, it could very easily climb.  For those who don't know what 4.30/5 means, let me assure you that it is a VERY high rating.  Even the highly touted Where the Crawdad Sings and The Extraordinary Life of Sam Hell are only a couple of percentage points above Cara's THIP .

We all know big-name authors who write very successful series.  When they have the guts to venture out into a standalone (and, believe me, it does take guts), they don't always fare so well.  Cara does NOT fall into that category.  She has gone outside her comfort zone and has become firmly ensconced in a new one.  She will undoubtedly return to Aimee Leduc, and we will welcome that.  But I think we'll all be waiting for that next standalone.  To borrow from the sports world, Cara Black's got game!

A Bunch of Mini-Mini Reviews

I have read a lot of very good books lately.  But I don't seem to have/make time to give them their proper due with reviews.  So I will do the next best thing (is it really?) and list them with just a few sentences. And, by the way, these are all 3.5/4 or higher.  So here I/we go, in no particular order:

1.  Harlan Coben's latest, The Boy from the Woods, is his typical top-notch tale.  Nobody consistently tells a mystery/thriller/suspense story any better than he does.

2.  It's Not PMS, It's You is the new romantic comedy from Rich Amooi. If you want to laugh out loud...a lot, then I highly recommend Rich's books.  This one is a crack-up.  But let me be clear, he still creates an emotional connection with the protagonists.

3.  The Things We Cannot Say is my 1st Kelly Rimmer book.  It's her 7th and latest. It's historical fiction and takes place in Poland during WWII. Pan Jenoff, one of my favorite authors, writes on the cover:  "Fans of The Nightingale and Lilac Girls will adore The Things We Cannot Say...a poetic and unforgettable tale."  Enough said.

4.  Back in December (Christmas Day, to be exact), I reviewed Windy City Blues by Renee Rosen.  I liked it a whole lot.  Well, it didn't take me long to read another one of her books.  I liked Park Avenue Summer almost as much as WCB.  This one is about Helen Gurley Brown when she became the editor of Cosmopolitan in 1965.  Rosen mixes real-life people with fictional characters (historical fiction, anybody?) incredibly well.  2 Rosen's down and 4 to go!

5.  Barry Eisler's latest, All the Devils, is the 3rd in the Livia Lone series. Everything Barry writes is enjoyable.  AND he is coming to the RBC on June 17 to talk about Devils.  Great news for local RBC members and potential hangers-on.

6.  Everybody knows how much I loved The Extraordinary Life of Sam Hell, by Robert Dugoni.  I've got news for you...The Eighth Sister is no slouch.  It's about a former CIA case officer who has his own security consulting business and finds himself looking for a Russian agent undercover in Moscow.  Lots of intrigue.

7.  I have long been a big fan of a romantic series called the Maverick Billionaires, by Jennifer Skully and Bella Andre.  They are all good.  But the latest, #6, Captivating in Love, is one of my favorites.  For those of you who think you are above reading romance, try this series.  You might be surprised.

8.  And finally (for today), I've got an actual history book for you.  It's called Last Train out of Shanghai, by Helen Zia.  It focuses on 4 real children during the years that Japan controlled China up through WWII, during the Communist takeover by Mao in 1949, and beyond.  Very good, and in the epilogue we get a big happy surprise (you'll have to read it to find out).  Helen came to our RBC meeting this past Wednesday, and 9 out 9 people who read the book rated it 3.5 or higher! All history books should be so engaging.

Mini-Reviews of Allie Larkin's Other 2 Books

You all know what I thought about Swimming for Sunlight, Allie Larkin's most recent book.  But what you don't know is that I recently read her earlier 2 books, Stay and Why Can't I Be You. And they are darn good too.  I'm going to give you the synopses and hope that it will entice you to read her books (all of them, if you haven't already read SfS).

Stay-
Savannah "Van" Leone has been in love with Peter Clarke since their first day of college.  Six years later, Peter is marrying Van's best friend, Janie. Loyal to a fault, Van dons her pumpkin orange, maid of honor gown and stands up for the couple, struggling to hide her true feelings even when she couldn't be more conspicuous.  After the wedding, nursing her broken heart with a Rin Tin Tin marathon plus a vodka chaser, Van accidentally orders a German shepherd puppy over the internet.  When "Joe" turns out to be a hundred pound beast who only responds to commands in Slovak, Van is at the end of her rope - until she realizes that sometimes life needs to get more complicated before it can get better."

This is Allie's 1st book, published in 2010.

Why Can't I Be You-
When Jenny Shaw hears someone shout "Jessie!" across a hotel lobby, she impulsively answers.  All her life, Jenny has toed the line, but something propels her to seize the opportunity to become Jessie Morgan, a woman to whom she bears an uncanny resemblance.  Lonely in her own life, Jenny is embraced by Jessie's warm circle of friends - and finds unexpected romance.  But when she delves into Jessie's past, Jenny discovers a secret that spurs her to take another leap into the unknown.

And this, not surprisingly, is her 2nd book, published in 2013.  Besides enjoying her story and her writing, this one produced a take-away for me.  As you know, it doesn't happen very often.  But when it does, it has a pretty profound effect on me.  Wanna know what it is?  Good.  It's that you can't judge people when you don't know what they're going through.  I think we all fall in the trap of analyzing somebody's behavior based on our own set of standards.  But how do we know what prompted that person to do what she or he did?  Unless we have the inside scoop, we can't.  I hope to keep that in my mind as I navigate this world on a day-to-day basis.

Bottom line?  Read Allie's books!

FFTNFR XII

Ellen Marie Wiseman - What She Left Behind
Ellen Marie Wiseman - The Life She Was Given
Kristen Harmel - The Winemaker's Wife
Kristin Hannah - The Great Alone
Ally Larkin - Swimming for Sunlight
Suzanne Woods Fisher - Mending Fences
Kristen Harmel - When We Meet Again
Barry Eisler - All the Devils
Kate Quinn - The Huntress
Robert Dugoni - The Extraordinary Life of Sam Hell (audiobook)
Delia Owens - Where the Crawdads Sing
Sally Field - In Pieces (audiobook)
Renee Rosen - Windy City Blues
Tracey Garvis Graves - The Girl He Used to Know
Sarah Jio - Goodnight June

Kristin Harmel's When We Meet Again

For those of you who have never read my blog (and you know who you are!), there is an author that I have been extremely high on over the last couple of years.  Her name is Kristin Harmel, and I have just finished my 5th book.  It's called When We Meet Again.  And, big surprise, I liked it a lot.  Here is what it's about:

Emily Emerson is used to being alone; her dad ran out on the family when she was just a kid, her mom died when she was eighteen, and her beloved grandmother has just passed away as well.  But when she's laid off from her reporting job, she finds herself completely at sea...until the day she receives a beautiful, haunting painting of a young woman standing at the edge of a sugarcane field under a violet sky.  That woman is recognizable as her grandmother - and the painting arrives with no identification other than a handwritten note saying, "He never stopped loving her."
Emily is hungry for roots and family, so she begins to dig.  And as she does, she uncovers a fascinating era in American history.  Her trail leads her to the World War II POW internment camps in Florida, where the German prisoners worked for American farmers...and sometimes fell in love with American women.  But how does this all connect to the painting?  The answer to that question will take Emily from the sweltering Everglades to Munich, Germany, and back to the Atlanta art scene before she's done.
Along the way, she finds herself tempted to tear down her carefully tended walls at last; she's seeing another side of her father, and a new angle on her painful family history.  But she still has secrets, ones she's kept locked inside for years.  Will this journey bring her the strength to confront them at last?

Let me tell you what I liked about this book:
1.  I am a big fan of historical fiction.  And as you have seen from Harmel's The Room on Rue Amelie, The Sweetness of Forgetting, and The Winemaker's Wife, and, now, When We Meet Again, nobody does it any better.
2.  Did you know that German prisoners actually worked on farms here in the U.S. during WWII?  Neither did I.  When you read WWMA, you'll find out how many there were.  And I think it will blow your mind.  It sure did mine.
3.  My favorite historical fiction novels are the ones that go back and forth from then to now.  This one certainly does that.
4.  Kristin has created a book that mixes in mystery tied into the historical elements.
5.  And let's not forget that there might even be a love story to enjoy.
6.  Finally, and probably most importantly for me, I emotionally connected to the characters.  You all know how important that is to me.  I never have to worry about that with Kristin's books.

So there you have it.  I will end by quoting from notes I took while reading:  "I'm tired of doing nothing but praise Harmel.  But what can I do?"